Saturday, August 7, 2010

Hello internet world!I have been cooking more frequently lately, though baking less, and have been wanting to post some of my creations. This post will only encompass the mess of treats I assembled for dogs and cats!

Long story short, the humane society will have a booth this weekend at the Speidie Fest in Binghamton , and at all of these events volunteers bake "cookies" for people to buy for their dogs and cats, all proceeds going to the humane society. Also at the booth are toys, leashes and collars for dogs and cats, and pictures of the current adoptable animals.So in comes me! I became feverish with the need to bake and after scouring the internet assembled a mix of recipes into two - one for dogs, and one for cats.

Fresh out of the oven, cooling

Just frosted with royal icing

Notice the difference between the flowers in this picture, and above. Leaving them to harden as we went off to dinner, Eloise the mischievous cat decided to lick away the not-yet-hardened frosting on the flowers I finished last. Brian did not believe me until I showed him the "before we left" shot. We then discovered a bit of green frosting on her whiskers as well. Caught red-handed!

I researched a few recipes on the internet before making my own concoctions which I then scribbled down for future reference..

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Dog Cookies & Royal Icing

2 cups flour1 cup quick oats1/2 cup peanut butter1 1/4 cups hot water

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Add in peanut butter and hot water, scraping bowl occasionally.Preheat oven to 325 degrees.Flour a flat surface and rolling pin; roll out dough and use cookie cutters to shape. Place cookies on greased cookie sheet, bake for 30-40 minutes.When cookies are slightly browned on the edges they are done.Cool on baking racks for at least 20 minutes before letting your dog(s) "test".

Makes about 50 small dog bone sized cookies, obviously depends on size of cookies you are making.

Mix together all ingredients and stir until well-combined. Must use QUICKLY as this hardens up pretty fast, which makes it great for treats that could otherwise be messy.*NOTE: I read somewhere raw egg normally used in royal icing is bad for dogs, so I had to go to Wegman's and search for meringue powder. This amount of frosting was plenty for the number of cookies I made to have a thin layer. Dogs approve of these treats with or without the frosting so if you are making these and don't need much sugar so simple decorations or a thin layer of frosting works best and still looks pretty!

Carob decorationsI had originally bought carob ahead of finding an exact recipe or method of going about making these, so after looking for a carob frosting once I had the chips, I then realized I didn't really need them, but wanted to use what I had already.

Note to readers - carob chips apparently don't melt as well as chocolate chips, I have since found by further researching on the internet that the carob powder is much better for melting, food for thought :)

I had a hard time getting the right consistency; I added some vegetable oil and a little water and thinned out the paste a bit and then dipped some dog bones in my fakey-chocolate. These came out really well, but then when I tried to thin out the carob again to drizzle it over the frosted cookies, I had a bit of a failure. Even after freezing the cookies overnight, the carob was barely hardening.Needless to say, they will be messy! hopefully they don't melt too bad today and tomorrow in the heat of the park at speidie fest, and someone still brings them home to their pooches!

Combine dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl, then add in the wet ingredients. Dough will become VERY sticky, continue to add additional 1/2 cup flour until consistency is less elastic.Add more flour or more milk to achieve a bread-dough sort of texture.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Pinch small pieces of dough off and roll in hands to create small balls. Place dough balls on greased cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes or until slightly firm to the touch and lightly browned on all sides.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

My fiancee' and I went to visit the dogs again this past Sunday and there was two new poodles among with a few other new dogs. Normally, I'm not much of a poodle person, but there was something about Rusty and his 'beard' that had Brian and I wanting to take him out for a walk... and pick him up, every 2 minutes or so. =P

Meet Rusty, a nine year old (approx) poodle mix that was part of a puppy mill type situation. Basically he lived in a cage most of his life and made puppies.. a lot.

He loves to roll around in the grass.

...And to stick his tongue out at the camera

Laying down after all the rolling around and bouncing in the grass.

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Tiburon "T-Bone"2 1/2 - 3 year old Mastiff

Tiburon is my best buddy. He's been at the humane society for about a year. Not because he isn't a wonderful, hug-able, squishy-faced cuddle monster, but because he's very big and not very well trained. His owner gave him up because he had to have back surgery. And unfortunately, the people who come in and look at him are never 'matching' homes - they either have small children, aren't strong enough/experienced enough, or live in an apartment. This size dog with the amount of energy he has needs a fenced in yard, and another dog that's as energetic and big as he is.

Can I play in the water?

Giant water bowl?

Just imagine how much water comes off a 100+ lb dog with extra floppy skin.

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William is a 1-2 year old mixed breed who is your typical happy, active, silly puppy

Mud! that water stuff is weird though.. scary!

Back inside? Why would I want to go there?

How can you resist a smiling dog?

All of the above dogs are from the Binghamton Humane Society, in Binghamton,NY. Find more info by searching on Petfinder.

Monday, April 26, 2010

I found this recipe courtesy of The Pioneer Woman from Bakerella's Blog. I had been thinking about cinnamon buns lately anyway, haven't had them homemade in a loooong time.. too long, clearly. And low and behold there they were when I was aimlessly clicking through Bakerella's website. Maple coffee icing?! Don't mind if I do =P

Pre-frosting.. Isn't Pam spray awesome ? My fiancee' is showing off how he flipped the one pan upside down and tapped once or twice, and all the cinnamon buns popped out perfectly, still attached and looking lovely!

Icing, anyone? Drizzled all over for maximum gooeyness.

You need to see it up close to appreciate fully..

I halfed the recipe since it makes about 25 in half, and 50 or so with the full batch. Brian and I don't need that many, especially with the wedding on the way (June 18th!) and us both trying to get back in shape. There's still a lot for just us so I gave a few to our landlord and will drop off some with my mom later today. But then again.. do I really want to share.. hmm.. ;)

since I was feeling like I needed to cook yesterday, I also made two recipes for dinner.. one was an asparagus risotto recipe that was on the tiny tag of the asparagus we bought earlier in the week, and the other was a modified recipe found on the side of Good Housekeeping's Artichoke Pasta Sauce. I will post both later, as I need to get to work soon :)

Thursday, April 22, 2010

So I'm not really sure yet what this blog is going to be about in a general sense - I like writing about my animals, and the shelter animals, hence the "mutts" and I love to ride horses, so they will definitely make a presence in this blog. My other major hobby is to bake and cook; experimenting in the kitchen is a blast! :)

I am also currently trying to get in better shape so my 1/2 way through the new year's resolution is to make myself get more active. Part of that will be through walking my dogs and the shelter dogs more, along with riding as much as humanly possible.

I am itching to try photography and have been for a while, so I will include my latest attempts.So these posts will vary between dogs, baking, photography, horses, getting in shape, and everything in-between! I want to get my thoughts out there somewhere, I'm always thinking too much so maybe if I write things down it will get me somewhere.

Today I made pizza dough, 1/2 of which I will use for dinner tonight! I plan on making a white pizza with hot sausage crumbled on top.. wish me luck